I beat the whole thing in in one sitting yesterday. Here are my impressions:
POSITIVE
- The physics are perfectly faithful to the classic games.
- Level design is mostly spot-on.
- The soundtrack is incredible.
- Full of fanservice, but cleverly implemented. It's far more than just seeing classic levels.
- The difficulty level is perfect (in my opinion; I've seen some people complaining about Game Overs, but I never got one).
- Strikes a great balance between nostalgia and brand new stuff. Not just in terms of classic zones and new zones, but also the new stuff in classic zones, and homages/references in new zones.
- Most of the bosses were outstanding.
NEGATIVE
- With the perfectly faithful physics comes the classic issue of Sonic dying if he so much as even slightly enters an area where there's not enough room for him to stand up. The rising water area in Chemical plant Zone is the perfect example of this. There's not enough room between some of the moving platforms to stand up, but there's enough room for Sonic when he's curled up. Which means if you're not careful, you can end up accidentally jumping into a gap and dying instantly.
- I didn't care for the very last zone, especially the second act. It went on far too long, and and too much of it had you flying and bouncing around with very little control.
- Some bosses are quite unspectacular, especially when considering how great most of them are. The
one in particular was quite disappointing. Considering how the end of that zone in the original game had a great setpiece and great boss, I was hoping for something special in Mania, but it was just a standard boss arena, and the boss itself was nothing special, and it was a bit irritating trying to hit it without getting hurt.
- Blue Spheres, and locking extras behind it, particularly ones that require you to perfect them. I'm OK at Blue Sphere, but not amazing. I tried to get all rings several times but gave up because I don't enjoy it enough.
- I would have liked more Sonic 1 and 3 stage representation. They only get 1 stage each. Green Hill Zone is always the go-to in any Sonic 1 representation in games like Generations, Mania, and stuff like Smash, Mario & Sonic, Sega Superstars Tennis, etc. It's disappointing to always see the rest of Sonic 1 go completely ignored. And after Generations (technically) snubbed Sonic 3 entirely, it would have been nice to see another Sonic 3 stage in Mania. Especially since they didn't really mix up the stage they did include as much as they did others.
The positives FAR outweigh the negatives though. I'm undecided if S3&K or Mania is my favourite Sonic game, but that in itself is incredibly high praise. Mania is everything I wanted and more.